Heading into 2012, the Los Angeles Dodgers will have a new face manning the shortstop position. With Rafael Furcal traded away in 2011 and Jamey Carroll off to the Minnesota Twins, Dee Gordon will take the reins and look to utilize his speed, range, and strong arm.

One of the team’s top prospects heading into 2011, Gordon got a chance to play after Furcal was injured, and his speed was on display from the get go, as he swiped 24 bases in 31 attempts, good for a 77.5% success rate. Unfortunately for Gordon, he missed time with a shoulder injury, and his slight frame will probably always leave him vulnerable to injury on some level.

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What is more concerning when examining Gordon is his minuscule walk rate of just 3% and a poor UZR/150. To be a successful leadoff man, Gordon will have to draw more free passes or become the reincarnation of Ichiro circa the early 2000s. Flash will never be a power hitter, but the club doesn’t need him to be. Just getting on-base at an solid clip and being an efficient baserunner will serve the team well as he sets the table for Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. In the field, Gordon will have to improve on his -21.5 UZR/150, though that total is obviously subject to small sample size bias, as he played in just under 450 innings in 2011.

Working in Gordon’s favor is that he doesn’t go down on strikes often, never whiffing in more than 15% of his plate appearances since turning pro (with a 2011 MLB mark of 11.6%). A .304/.325/.362 line with a .314 wOBA simply won’t cut it though, and Dee will need to reach base more often and pound out doubles and triples in order to be a plus with the bat. Any of his minor league lines in 2008, 2009, or 2011 (.331/.371/.430, .301/.362/.394, .333/.373/.410) would serve Gordon, the Dodgers, The Bison, and the pitching staff well.

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Don Mattingly has already proclaimed Dee the leadoff guy, and while a more patient hitter like A.J. Ellis is probably better suited to leadoff, Dee has the makeup of a traditional top-of-the-order guy with his speed and bunting ability.

He won’t soon get moved down in the order, but Dee can certainly do himself a favor by being more selective at the dish and drawing a free pass every now and then.

Dee Gordon’s season was much like the picture you see above: up and down, up and down. Beginning the year in AAA and just an injury or two away from the show, the inevitable happened and Gordon made his way to the bigs. Coming in with a reputation as a contact hitter with speed to burn and a questionable glove, Gordon lived up admirably to that rep.

After slashing .333/.373/.410 with a .366 wOBA in AAA Albuquerque, Flash hit .304/.325/.362 with a .314 wOBA in 233 plate appearances with the big boys. He walked in just 3% of his plate appearances, but on the bright side only struck out 11.6% of the time, allowing himself the opportunity to beat out ground balls (which he hit 55.9% of the time) for hits with that blazing speed of his.

Gordon was successful on 24 of his 31 stolen base attempts, and considering he’s never going to hit for power (2011 MLB ISO of just .058, and a professional best of .100 in rookie ball back in 2008) Dee will have to improve upon that 77.4% success rate on the basepaths to make his incredible speed a positive. The ability to steal bases is one thing; being able to steal them at an efficient rate is something else entirely.

In the field, Gordon was capable of the spectacular play, but also the simple mistakes that often plague shortstops with great arms. Dee started 54 games at short, and to put it mildly, was bad with the glove. His UZR/150 was an astonishingly terrible -21.5, and that – combined with the lack of plate discipline and power – led to a WAR of just 0.6.

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Gordon’s season can be nicely divided in two with the All-Star break serving as the divider. Pre-break, Gordon hit just .232/.250/.280/.530, but post-break he showed that adjustments were made, as he hit .345/.367/.408/.776. The late surge included by far his best month as a pro, a white-hot September that saw Dee mash at a .372/.398/.451/.850 rate. September also saw improvements in his pitch recognition, plate discipline (9:5 K:BB after starting with an abysmal 18:2 mark), and his ability to drive the ball, as he smacked 8 extra-base hits after beginning the month with just 3.

All in all, it was a solid rookie campaign for Gordon. He did battle multiple shoulder injuries that curtailed the ample playing time he was given, but we saw the tools – the speed, the great arm, and the energy that mainstream pundits will talk so much about.

If Gordon can steal bases at a higher rate of success and get himself on base more often by drawing walks at a loftier clip, all the while improving his glove, he could be a huge positive factor going forward from atop the Dodger lineup. Barring anything unforeseen, 2012 will see Gordon manning short and hitting leadoff, and if nothing else, we know it will always be entertaining when Devaris Strange-Gordon is up to bat or has a play to make in the field.

When healthy, Rafael Furcal is a dynamic player, possessing a good eye at the plate, speed, the ability to successfully steal bags, a bit of pop, and a gun for an arm in the field. Unfortunately, in his time in Los Angeles, he was rarely healthy for an extended period of time, battling an array of maladies.

Furcal averaged just about 103 games a season in his six years in L.A., and even his unfortunate attraction to injury was a tad bit overblown. He actually played in 138 games or more 3 times, and he didn’t injure himself in idiotic ways (hello, Jason Repko). However, it is undeniable that his true impact was not felt over the last couple of years, and that proved true in 2011 as he only played in 37 games before a trade that shipped him to St. Louis in exchange for minor league outfielder Alex Castellanos.

Furcal leaves Los Angeles with a line of .283/.351/.406/.757 in just over 2800 plate appearances in blue. So long, Raffy.

The Three Stooges

Justin Sellers, Juan Uribe, and Aaron Miles combined to start 20 games at short, with Sellers flashing an impressive glove – a 28.2 UZR/150 – in 151.2 innings at the position.